Article ID: CBB038335587

“A vast field in itself”: Acclimatisation, Phrenology and Salvage Ethnography in the Goldfields Mechanics’ Institutes (2022)

unapi

This article investigates the dual project of colonial improvement and settlement shaping the identity and purpose of Victorian goldfields mechanics’ institutes in their pursuit of colonial knowledge and their participation in networks of imperial science. Focussing on three institutes established during the first decade of the Australian gold rush—the Sandhurst Mechanics’ Institute (SMI, est. 1854), the Beechworth Athenaeum (est. 1856) and the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI, est. 1859)—this article examines the institutes’ support of acclimatisation societies and their interest in developing local natural histories; their fascination with and encouragement of debates surrounding phrenology; and their practices of collecting ethnographic material that shaped their involvement with the evolving theories of racial science in the Australian colonies. In studying these social and scientific activities, this article demonstrates how the institutes promoted and embodied a local settler identity and ideology that worked to alleviate the moral and social anxieties accompanying the gold rush. In doing so, this article also reveals the imperial reach of regional literary institutions and elucidates the scholarly benefits of treating these institutes as significant participatory nodes in imperial networks as we shift our focus from traditional metropole-colony exchanges.

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Authors & Contributors
Anderson, Warwick H.
Beattie, James
Blanchard, Pascal
Burnett, D. Graham
Buschmann, Rainer F.
Deveson, E. D.
Journals
British Journal for the History of Science
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Health and History
Historical Records of Australian Science
History Workshop Journal
Publishers
Princeton University
Duke University Press
Liverpool University Press
Otago University Press
Routledge
University of North Carolina Press
Concepts
Great Britain, colonies
Colonialism
Imperialism
Ethnography
Acclimatization
Science and race
People
Dumont d'Urville, Jules Sébastien Cézar
Porteus, Stanley David
Révész, Geza
Becker, Lothar
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
Places
Australia
Great Britain
India
France
Africa
Germany
Institutions
East India Company (English)
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